As soon as the children got on the bike path again, they tried to figure out their conversation with Hilda.
“We didn’t get any answers about the Clover Dodge statue,” Violet said.
Henry disagreed. “Oh, but we did. Now we know Hilda definitely took things from Skeleton Point and that she doesn’t want us to see them. That’s got to be the reason she didn’t let us in her studio.”
“I guess you’re right, Henry,” Violet said. “I sure wish the statue was back where it belongs. Since it wasn’t broken, why did Hilda bring it to her studio?”
The children pedaled along the lake and thought about what to do next.
“Let’s have lunch!” Benny suggested. “That helps me figure out things.”
“Lunch always solves everything for you, Benny,” Jessie said with a laugh. All the same, she slowed down when she came to the sign for the Shady Lake General Store. “You know, if we stop here, we can — ”
“Have an ice cream cone for dessert!” Benny said.
Jessie smiled. “Exactly!”
The children rolled their bikes to a picnic grove close to the dock that belonged to the general store. As soon as the Aldens took out their sandwiches, a flock of ducks decided to join the children for lunch, too. Not a crumb was wasted as the birds waddled under the picnic table. The children hadn’t been seated long when another visitor showed up.
“Max!” Jessie said when Greeny’s dog raced over to chase the ducks away. “You smelled our ham sandwiches, didn’t you? Where’s Greeny?”
Benny slid over to pet Max. “Sorry, the ducks ate the rest of my sandwich. Hey, you’re as wet as a duck, too. Were you playing in the water?”
“Greeny’s boat is docked out there,” Henry said, looking at the marina. “He must be at the store getting supplies. Jessie, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Jessie nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with just going for a walk on the dock, is there? And if we happen to pass Greeny’s boat, we might be able to see if he still has that mysterious crate we saw him carry down from Skeleton Point.”
The Aldens didn’t waste any time. They gathered up their trash and threw it into a nearby basket. Max followed along, hoping to catch a few forgotten crumbs the ducks might have missed.
Benny dug into his backpack for a ball he often carried. He aimed it toward the dock. “Go get it, Max! Let’s follow him. Now we have a good excuse to go near the boat.”
“Exactly what I was thinking, Detective Alden,” Henry told Benny.
As soon as Max found the ball, he trotted out to Greeny’s boat.
Jessie had to laugh. “Max is just like Watch. He likes to bring the ball to a special spot then makes us chase him there.”
The children ran after Max.
When he got to the dock, Henry stared into the boat. “Greeny sure keeps a lot of stuff in there. Fishing tackle, life jackets, boxes, a couple of toolboxes, fuel cans, and — ”
“A skull!” Benny said in a loud whisper. “See? It’s in the milk crate, but it’s partway covered up.”
The children craned their necks, trying to get a better look under the canvas.
Just as a gust of wind began to lift the covering, Greeny appeared. “What are you kids doing?”
Thank goodness for Max. At that moment, he picked up the ball in his mouth and brought it over to Greeny.
“He wants you to take Benny’s ball and throw it,” Jessie said. “We were trying to get it back when Max jumped into your boat with it.”
Max suddenly dropped the ball, so Benny reached in and picked it up. Max leaped from the boat, and Benny followed him.
By this time, Greeny got in the boat himself. He quickly tucked the canvas cover tightly over the milk carton. “Max, get back here!” Greeny yelled. “Don’t throw that ball near the boat, Benny. Got it?”
“Got it,” Benny said, walking toward his bike. He felt so upset at being scolded, he forgot all about his ice cream and finishing the game of fetch with Max.
The children quietly pedaled away, not as happily as before. Awhile later, they came to Skeleton Point.
“Let’s push our bikes behind those bushes so everything will be safe,” Henry suggested. “We can come back for them later.”
“What I want to find out,” Jessie said as the children began to climb the steps, “is whether William will let us work in Dr. Tibbs’s study.”
Halfway up, the Aldens searched for the trail they had hiked the day before.
“Hey, where’s the secret path?” Benny asked. “Wasn’t it right around here?” He skipped a couple steps ahead then came back down. “The skeleton isn’t sitting here, either, like yesterday.”
“It’s almost as if we dreamed up the secret path,” Violet said. “Wait! I know why.” She pulled away a tangle of prickly holly branches. “These branches covered it up.”
Henry still had on his bike gloves. He tossed the thorny branches aside. “Since no one knows we’re here yet, let’s check Dead Man’s Cave before we go to the house.”
The Aldens set out on the secret path. Along the way, they looked for the horse skull they had seen the day before. That, too, was gone. They finally located the hideout door.
“Benny, hand me my flashlight,” Henry said, peeking into a crack between the door and the rock. “Even if we can’t get inside, the door doesn’t quite fit over the cave opening. Maybe I can get a look with my flashlight.”
Benny rummaged through Henry’s bike bag. “Here.”
Henry held his flashlight up to the crack. “Gee, it’s not much of a hideout,” he said. “Our boxcar was way bigger than this. Hey wait! Jessie, here, take a look.”
Jessie took the flashlight. “Wow! That looks like Mister Bones in there. And the horse skull, too. Plus some statues I never saw before. Come here.”
Benny could hardly wait. Since he was shorter than the other children, he saw something they had missed. He waved the flashlight over the floor of the hideout. “Look. Footprints.”
“They’re still muddy,” Violet said when she took a look. “Whoever made them was just here.”
The children tried hard to pull open the rusty door but had no luck.
“Let’s go up to the house,” Jessie suggested. “We can at least see if William made those prints. They sure look like his.”
“And these!” Henry pointed to a muddy part of the path. “These footprints look pretty new, too. Let’s follow them.”
When the children returned to the main path, they followed the muddy footprints up the steps.
Henry covered up the secret path with the holly branches again. “I don’t want anybody else to find this trail or even know we found it.”
When they reached the top, the children saw William heading to the gardening shed with some clippers in his hand.
Jessie caught up to him. “Hi, Mr. Mason,” she said. “Oh, your gardening clippers are just like Grandfather’s. So are those leather gardening gloves. Were you out pruning brushes?”
William stared at the clippers in his gloved hand as if he didn’t know what they were. He ignored Jessie’s question. “I thought you kids said you were going swimming today.”
“You said that, not us,” Henry replied. “We came here to help Charlotte. Did she call you about working on Dr. Tibbs’s skeleton collection? She wants us to count what’s in there.”
“Waste of time, if you ask me,” William said. “Just ship the whole shebang to the medical school and let them do the job.”
Violet had something important to tell Mr. Mason. “Charlotte is putting Greeny Owen in charge of the skeletons before she sends them to the medical school.”
“Greeny Owen?” William Mason said. “I chased him off here just this morning when I found him wandering around in the house as if he owned it.”
Violet had to defend Greeny. “He just wants to protect Dr. Tibbs’s skeleton collection. He thinks someone may have taken some of them recently.”
William looked at Violet for a long time. “What do you mean, someone took the skeletons? There’s such a jumble of bones in there, who would even know if any of them were missing?”
“Greeny would!” Benny blurted out. “And we saw skeletons in the woods, and so did Grandfather and Charlotte.”
William laughed. “Well, everybody knows about the Walking Skeleton,” he told the Aldens. “Maybe you should tell Charlotte to stay put in her nice little cottage where she won’t be scared by skeletons roaming the woods.”
“Charlotte isn’t scared of skeletons, walking or not,” Jessie said. “She’s going to fix up Skeleton Point no matter what.”
William walked up the broken steps of the reflecting pool. “Well, you can’t say she wasn’t warned ahead of time.”
Jessie checked her watch. “We’d like to go into Dr. Tibbs’s study and do what Charlotte asked us to do.”
William didn’t look too pleased about this, but he nodded anyway. “Suit yourself. If that’s what Charlotte wants, feel free.”
But the door to Dr. Tibbs’s study wasn’t open.
Henry pushed the door with his shoulder. “Maybe it’s stuck the way it was the other day.” When the door didn’t budge, he pushed it with his whole body. Still it didn’t open. “Know what? There’s a lock on it — a new one,” he said. “That’s why I can’t get it open.”
Hilda arrived just as the Aldens were heading out to find William.
Jessie went up to her. “Hi, again. Would you happen to have the key to the study? It’s locked. Charlotte wants us to get started organizing the skeleton collection.”
Hilda looked puzzled. “Locked? Why would anybody lock up those dusty old things? None of the locks inside the house work anyway. Just push the door hard.”
“We already did,” Henry said. “This lock is new. Did the locksmith finally come? Charlotte sent one out last week, but he got scared off.”
Hilda seemed in a hurry and not in any kind of mood to talk with the Aldens. “Well, since you can’t get in there, you won’t be able to do whatever job Charlotte suggested. Perhaps you should head home until you hear from her again.”
The children looked at one another. Why was this woman always trying to make them go away?
Jessie surprised her brothers and sister by agreeing. “Sure. I guess we will go. See you tomorrow.”
When the children got outside, Benny was confused. “Why are we going home? Can’t we ask her about my photos?”
Jessie put her arm on Benny’s shoulder. “We’re only going to pretend to leave. We’ll sneak to the other side of the house and see what the two of them are up to.”
When the children came outside, they waved at William.
“See you tomorrow,” Henry called out loudly. Then in a whisper he said, “And probably a whole lot sooner.”
Soon the children were hiking through the woods again. As they circled back, they came up with a plan.
“We have to somehow get upstairs without anyone seeing us,” Henry said. “That way we’ll get a better view around the property. And in old houses, the sound sometimes travels through the heating vents. We might be able to hear what Hilda and William are up to. They seem to spend all their time either outside or downstairs.”
The children hid behind some trees not far from the back of the house. A large clearing stood between the house and the woods. Somehow they were going to have to race through the clearing without being seen.
Jessie took the binoculars to check around the property. “Hilda’s out talking with William near the reflecting pool. Okay now. One by one, we have to scoot into the open and go through the back door. Who wants to go first?”
Benny volunteered. “Say when,” he whispered to Jessie.
“Now!” Jessie said. “They’re facing away from the house. You go, too, Violet. See that room in the tower? We’ll meet you up there. If you hear anyone coming, hide behind the furniture. If you get caught, just say you came back to look for Benny’s camera.” With that, Jessie gave both of the younger children a little push. They were across the lawn in a flash.
“Uh-oh, duck,” Henry told Jessie. “William just turned around. Gee, he’s walking this way. I hope he didn’t see us.”
But William seemed too lost in his own thoughts to notice Jessie and Henry crouching in the bushes. He passed just a couple feet away from them on his way to the gardening shed.
“It’s now or never,” Jessie whispered to Henry. “Hilda is putting her sketch pad and pencils back into her tote bag. She’s going to turn around any minute.”
Henry glanced up at the main house. “Look, Benny and Violet are waving us that the coast is clear.” Henry grabbed his sister’s hand. The two of them raced across the clearing and disappeared into the house. |